The 11-month-old beige golden retriever jumped and ran around so much that his owner, Erin Stenger of Wind Gap, had to keep adjusting his white blanket, which displayed a red AIDS ribbon and declared Sako's status as the first dog ever registered in the walk.

"I just felt that I'd get more donations and more of a response if I registered him," said Stenger, who supports animal shelters and AIDS-related causes.

Co-workers at Dun & Bradstreet in Bethlehem and her mother's co-workers at UPS in Morristown, N.J., donated $175 to help six Lehigh Valley organizations that provide services to those who have contracted HIV and to educate the public on its dangers.

Stenger and Sako were two of 423 participants in the AIDSWalk, one of the best turnouts the event has had. When all the pledges are turned in, AIDSWalk officials expect to collect nearly $40,000, said Glenn Miller, organization chairman.

This was the first event planned by AIDSWalk since it became an independent nonprofit organization under federal tax laws. Previously, the annual walk came under the umbrella of Fighting AIDS Continuously Together of Allentown.

However, the purpose of the walk remains the same: to raise money for the AIDS Services Center, Advocates for Healthy Children, New Directions Treatment Services, Hispanic AIDS Education Consortium, Latino AIDS Outreach and the Lehigh County Conference of Churches' Daybreak Program.

Turnout at last year's event was held down by cold, rainy weather, organizers said. On Sunday, participants were blessed with a glorious early autumn afternoon that included blue skies and temperatures that approached 80 degrees.

The walk was five miles long, taking participants west from the Rose Garden in Bethlehem into Allentown and back again. This year, for the first time, organizers offered a shorter course that allowed some to walk three-quarters of a mile during the round trip.

While organizers aim to make the event fun and music-filled, there were reminders of the grim toll AIDS has taken. Just before the walk began, participants were asked to shout the names of those who have died during a moment of prayer.

Several people, such as Gene Strot of Allentown, were overcome with tears. Strot's partner, Ted Seifert, died in January of an AIDS-related illness after fighting off the disease for 10 years. Events like the

AIDSWalk are important, Strot said, because too many people take for granted that a few pills will keep them alive if they get HIV.

"Today's kids, when you try to talk to them about this in the bars, they wave their hand and laugh," Strot said.

Maggie Hoffman-Terry, director of the AIDS Clinic at Lehigh Valley Hospital and who spoke to the participants and volunteers before the walk, expressed frustration at not being allowed to carry a prevention message to teen-agers.

"I'm not being allowed to educate young people on how to stop the spread of the disease even though 50 percent of the new cases are people under the age of 25," she said.

Sako's owner, Stenger, 25, knows firsthand about what AIDS can do. It killed her uncle, Frederick Pulley, 10 years ago.

"I was young," she said. "I wish I knew more about him. In those years, they didn't have the medicines they have now."